Commercial aircraft parts are needed daily in the ongoing required maintenance schedule of various airline fleets. Some parts are replaced due to regular maintenance and some are required due to part failure. There are a multitude of parts that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has determined to be groundable items. In effect, if groundable parts fail, the aircraft is immediately grounded and that aircraft is put into a status known as A.O.G. (Aircraft On Ground). The A.O.G. status has the highest level of priority in the aviation industry because a grounded aircraft results in lost revenue to the airline using the aircraft. Because of stringent safety concerns, in the U.S. alone there are hundreds of aircraft grounded daily.
Currently the airline parts and supply chain is very fragmented in both physical location as well as service procedures. This fragmentation creates an ineffective process which in turn costs the airlines a great deal of lost time, negative customer relations, and additional shipping fees.
Obviously when an aircraft is grounded it is located at the airport, usually at a departure/arrival gate. Delays such as this create a back-up effect on the entire operation of the airport facility and thus cause a rippling effect to other air-carriers and other airports.
Once a groundable part has been determined to have failed, the maintenance team of the air-carrier must replace that part prior to the aircraft leaving the gate. All parts on a commercial aircraft have very specific part numbers that corresponds with the aircraft manufacturer's requirements. The maintenance team isolates the failed part and then contacts the airline internal purchasing department to request a replacement part. The purchasing department will then start a global search for a certified version of the needed part. Most purchasing departments will simply call a few of their preferred vendors and allow the vendors to search the availability of needed parts. The vendors will complete the research and then forward the information to the airline purchasing department, which will in turn check with the maintenance team to see if the part will eliminate the problem. Availability time for obtaining the part to get the aircraft flying often quickly surpasses the price of the part as a purchasing factor.
The maintenance team must verify that the part has the proper FAA certification and documents prior to installing the part on the aircraft. It is common for additional time to be lost during this verification of certification, and in the event that proper a certification cannot be established for the part, the part cannot be placed on the aircraft and the entire search process must restart from the beginning.
The cost to airlines for using this outdated and fragmented system is great. In addition to lost operating costs and gate delay penalties, there can be the negative impact of customer discomfort, and the expense of food, free travel vouchers, and even free hotel vouchers for all passengers on the aircraft.